After Crash Kills Father, Age 4 Twins Manage To Unhook Themselves from Car Seats and Climb to Safety
You never know when disaster will strike. Many people assume they’ll encounter emergencies when covering new territory, but even the roads you’ve driven on a thousand times can prove just as dangerous as the unknown.
Corey Simmons, 47, of Washington had driven the curving route on Whidbey Island for years, as he used the road to get to and from work, and yet it was that route that claimed his life on Friday.
Simmons had been driving his 4-year-old twin daughters, Aurora and Rosaline, home from daycare. According to The Seattle Times, they stopped on the way for a snack, and at some point around 6:00 p.m., Simmons veered off the road and into a tree-filled ravine.
Simmons had made sure to buckle in his daughters, and other than a few bumps and scratches, they were fine — but he hadn’t shown himself the same care. He wasn’t wearing his seatbelt and sustained a fatal head injury.
The girls were just 4, but they did exactly what anyone in their situation should do. After unbuckling themselves, they checked on their dad.
Finding him unresponsive, they climbed out a broken window and up the steep hill to the roadway, where a good Samaritan spotted them.
The woman — who wished to remain anonymous — brought the girls into her car to keep them warm and called for help.
The Nissan Sentra buried in the ravine was not visible from the road, and if the girls hadn’t managed to catch the passer-by’s attention, they might have gotten lost, or worse.
First responders arrived and went down to the car, and Simmons was pronounced dead on the scene, according to CNN.
“It’s one of the truly saddest stories, but so heroic at the exact same time,” Trooper Heather Axtman, a spokeswoman for the State Patrol, told The Seattle Times. “Had those little girls not had the sense of awareness they showed, we would have a missing family. They overcame every typical little kid fear. The woods, and the dark.”
Esther Crider, the girls’ mother and Simmons’ girlfriend, told the Times that her daughters had been lost and trying to get home when the driver found them.
“They said they were scared and running around in the dark trying to go home,” she said. “A lady in a white car helped them get warm.”
“She was at the right spot at the right time,” Trooper Axtman agreed. “She knew something was tragic. The girls got in the car and said: ‘My daddy, my daddy, my daddy.'”
“We are so incredibly thankful, and we are desperately looking for who she is,” Rebecah Crider, Esther’s daughter and Simmons’ step-daughter, told KING 5 News. “We would love to personally meet her and thank her.”
“I want to say thank you to everyone for all your kind words,” Esther shared on Sunday. “I’m not very good and speaking my mind but just know that I am thankful for everyone and everything that everyone is doing to help.”
A GoFundMe has been set up to help the grieving family. “We are asking for help to assist with cost of funeral and burial/cremation services, as well to help with additional costs for his Partner and mother of the girls “Esther Crider” would be helpful during this difficult time for her loss and their children,” the page, which has raised over $7,000 so far, reads.
While it’s a blessing that the girls are physically well after their terrifying ideal, the event and loss of their father has deeply scarred them.
“It’s heartbreaking,” Esther said. “Rosaline used to giggle in her sleep. Now she’s crying.”
“Corey drove up and down that road every day for about five years,” she added. “I don’t know what happened.”
“Incredible heroes,” Axtman said, referring to the two brave girls. “Our prayers and thoughts are with them losing their dad.”
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